Rain, sleet, fog, heat. Whatever the weather, the cyclists keep coming, and when it comes to the daily commute the number of people ditching four wheels for two is on the rise.
In New York, where the number of cyclists taking to the roads during rush hour increased by 4 per cent last year, bikes routinely outnumber cars on some streets, while in inner London the number of residents cycling to work more than doubled between 2001 and 2011.
Research has shown, however, that in North America at least, people’s attitudes to and reasons for cycling vary according to their gender, race, class and income.
In a series of focus groups conducted in 2012 that explored barriers to cycling in Portland, Oregon, all of the African-American participants expressed a fear that drivers would be hostile to them, while none of the Hispanic or African participants expressed the same concern.
Two of the biggest determinants of cycling behaviour, however, are gender and the amount of investment in cycling infrastructure – bicycle tracks, cycle lanes, bicycle share schemes, and priority crossings – that cities make.
In 2013, researchers at the University of Ohio discovered that women are more sensitive to the issue of safety and are more likely to be deterred from cycling by the absence of bike lanes and trails. Those findings were corroborated by the experience of the Minnesotan cities of Minneapolis and St Paul where, thanks to recent increases in cycling infrastructure, up to 45 per cent of cyclists are women, the highest rate in the US.
nleech@thenational.ae
